r 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



452 



Trip Through the Orch- 

 ards of Tasmania and 

 Victoria. 



' The first thinj; that impresses an 

 orchardist when visitine Tasm'ania 

 is the closeness of the plantino-. 

 The average distance apart there 

 for apples and pears is 12 feet to 

 1 8 feet, with 15 feet 'as the most 

 popular distance. 



The soil in most districts is com- 

 paratively poor, and it is this fact 

 that makes the closer planting; 

 Tiracticable. The orchardist can 

 cnt back his trees hard without 

 runninj? the risk of producing- no- 

 thing- but wood. Indeed, hard 

 pruning on poor soil produces fruit 

 spurs. On rich soil such, as our 

 own it only causes wood-<rrowth, 

 and frTiit spurs can only ,be ob- 

 tained by liirht pruning or by let- 

 tin? the leaders go unpruned now 

 and again. The advocates of close 

 planting claim the following ad- 

 vantages for their system : — The 

 trees shade the groimd and thus 

 help to conserve moisture; they are 

 not so affected by windstorms ; 

 thev say that they obtain a high- 

 or price per case for medium-sized 

 apples than for large ones, and 

 that close planting)- produces them 

 auite large enough ; and, finall-v, 

 that the profit per acre from close 

 planting is larger than when the 

 trees are further "apart. 



The soil in the great orcharding- 

 centres of the Huon, Derwent, and 

 Tamar is a light, sandy loam 

 merging in places into almost a 

 pure sand, overhine a yello-w clay 

 subsoil. This latter is most im- 

 portant. Where the subsoil has 

 not a good proportion of clay the 

 trees invariably do badly and 

 soon die out ; whereas with a good 

 clay subsoil the trees do pretty 

 well, despite the poorness of the 

 top soil. Thus the orchardist can 

 put to profitable use soil which 

 would be useless for the fanner. T 

 saw only one orcharding district 

 where the soil was not of this 

 character. This was the B^'"' 

 Valley where the soil is a rather 

 rich, black, clay loam. The trees 

 here gre-w stronger than elsewhere 

 were planted further apart, nnd 

 bore more heavily. 



The North-west Coast of the 

 island mostly consists of a deep 

 rich chocolate Ped soil, similar to 

 that at Ratlow only much deeper. 

 There is where the famous pota- 

 toes come from, but very little 

 fruit growing is done on this soil 

 ns it is too rich. In the older 



establi.shed orcharding centres such 

 as the Huon, one is greatly struck 

 b\- the slovenly methods employed 

 by many of the orchardists, al- 

 though, of course there are many 

 men who are very up to date. 



— Packing. — 



The orchardists are adopting 

 the numerical pack. It is impos- 

 sible to describe tlus pack here, 

 but in my opinion it is by far the 

 best. Several of them grade their 

 fruit b}^ machine, but the general 

 idea appears to be that one should 

 not use a grader provided one can 

 secure the .services of a first-class 

 packer who can grade by eve. 

 With a grader the most experi- 

 enced can -pack well and quickly. 

 For the nttmerical pack it is 

 most important that fruit should 

 be graded accurately, i.e., to '^ii^-i 

 but Mr. Samson, an American 

 packer, whom I .saw gi^•ing a de- 

 monstration, prefers to grade by 

 eye, as he thinks there mvist be 

 some bruising. In one large shed 

 at Huon the following was the 

 method of handling the fruit : — 

 There is a large shed 60 feet by 3,0 

 feet with an additional 20 feet by 

 20 feet for the waggon, so that 

 the loading can be conducted in all 

 weathers. There are doors at both 

 sides. The cart at one door de- 

 livers the fruit packed loosely into 

 bushel cases. It is placed on a 

 trolley and wheeled over to the 

 orrader, where it is stacked, and 

 when it is decided to pack the 

 fruit it is run tlirouirh the grader. 

 It can then either be packed 

 straight from the machine or else 

 put into cases loosely but care- 

 fully, and packed from thence. 

 Wrapping paper is used by most 

 growers. It enhances the appear- 

 ance of the fruit, prevents rot 

 spreading, and maintains a more 

 even temperature ; it costs about 

 2d. a case. 



— Pests. — 

 The most troublesome orchard 

 disease in Tasmania in Black Spot. 

 It causes far greater losses than 

 Codlin Moth. The treatment is to 

 spray with either Bordeaux mix- 

 ture or lime-sulphur wash jiist 

 when the buds are bursting and 

 showing pink. The latter spray is 

 roming rapvdlv into favour, especi- 

 ally in Victoria. It is usual to 

 spray three times for the moth. 

 A method for keeping down the 

 moth which seems to promise well 

 has been discovered by the Princi- 

 pal of Burnley Horticultural Gar- 

 dens, Victoria. He hanirs a bottle 

 containing some preparation in the 

 tree, and the moth is attracted 

 and killed by it. The best or- 



Mftrch, 1914 



COOPER'S 



STOUT. 



Full-bodied and Nourishing, is 

 taking the place of Imported Stout 

 Recommended by Doctors. 



Write to— 



Thos. COOPER & SONS 

 Upper Kensington. 



chards are 'winter-sprayed with red 

 oil or lime-sulphur wash to kill 

 San Jose scale, red spiders, etc. 

 There is none of .the former in Tas- 

 mania, and rigorous precautions 

 are taken to keep it out. 



— Varieties. — 

 The favourite varieties of ap- 

 ples in Tasmania are Sturltner 

 Pippin, Cleopatra or New York 

 Pippin, .Tonathan, Five Cro-wn, 

 French Crab, and Scarlet Non- 

 pariel, a small, brilliantly coloured 

 apple which has not done well on 

 the mainland. Cleopatra is com- 

 mencing to fall into disrepute ow- 

 inp- to its liability to every kind of 

 disease. In the South, Jonathan 

 does not colour well, and conse- 

 auen.tlv is not the prime favourite 

 it is in the North. In the South, 

 Stunner is ■ probably the most 

 popular apple. It is justly called 

 "the poor man's apple," for it 

 cro])s heavily everv year on short 

 spurs, keeps very late, and sells 

 well in October when the other 

 apples are done. 



Other favourite sorts are Crof- 

 ton, a very eood small late dessert 

 ■apple, Allington Pippin, Alexan- 

 dra, a large red cooker, and 

 Adams' Pearmain. Granny Smith 

 is not known. 



The favourite pears are Winter 

 Cole, Winter Nelis, Beurre Bose, 

 Williams, .Josephine, and Napoleon. 

 Dr. Benjafield's pear orchard near 

 Hobart yielded between £200 to 

 £■,•^00 worth of pears per acre off 

 t6 acres. He cool-stores and says 

 he a-veracres Ts/ per ca.se. He has 

 about thirty varieties, and is a 

 firm believer in the advantages of 

 inter-pollination . 



Very few prunes are gro-wn in 

 Tasmania and Victoria ; in fact I 

 did not see one tree. For pick- 

 inrr fTTiit, the apron with remov- 

 able bottoim seem'ed to me the 

 best method. 



